€300,000 funding boost to renovate Girl Guides centre
THE IRISH Girl Guides have received a €300k boost from the Sports Capital Grants for the renovation and modification of their National Training Centre in Tallaght.
The significant funding will go towards the completion of their Tallaght premises, which is located in Belgard Square East beside the An Post sorting office and Dublin Climbing Centre.
The Irish Girl Guides (IGG), which has 11,000 members nationwide and has been in operation for 111 years, purchased the industrial building in 2019 with plans to renovate it by September 2020, but faced delays due to the pandemic.
The building, which has offices at the front and a warehouse at the rear, will include training rooms, including a Destination Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) lounge. At the moment, phase one of the renovations are underway after IGG receiving funding from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and South Dublin County Council.
“The Irish Girl Guides bought the premises in Tallaght behind The Square in January 2019, and we have been fundraising and trying to progress, but Covid had a huge impact on our fundraising,” Chair of the National Training Centre Committee, Helen Concannon, told The Echo.
“We are delighted that the Sports Capital Grant will now enable us to almost complete the building and we hope to get that done within the year. We had hoped to be in this April, but now that we have gotten this funding for phase two, we are hoping that we will be able to extend that out.”
The funding will go towards the completion of the building, including putting in a new floor, making it wheelchair accessible as well as a health and wellbeing space upstairs.
The centre is set to be a valuable feature for the girl guides as well as the wider Tallaght community, with it being open and accessible to all groups and individuals in the area.
“It will be safe space for girls and women to come together and participate in training and shared activities,” said Helen. “We will be looking forward to opening it up to other local community groups in the Tallaght area as well.
“We have also got some funding from South Dublin County Council, so there will definitely be meeting rooms and training facilities there that will allow us to work in partnership with other community groups that want to use this wonderful facility.”
